Listen. You gotta keep quiet about this review. Otherwise too many other people will try to cut in on the territory. The thing is, Christopher Null’s Five Stars! How to Become a Film Critic, The World’s Greatest Job, actually does what it says. It tells you how to become a …

Mal. Zoe. Jayne. Wash. Inara. Simon. River. Kaylee. Shepherd Book. Serenity. If those 10 names don’t leave you shaking your head at the stupidity of FOX Network executives, Finding Serenity isn’t the book for you. Finding Serenity is a collection of essays exploring the short lived FOX Television series Firefly. …

Simultaneously available in limited release in theaters and on DVD, The God Who Wasn’t There is Brian Flemming’s attempt to prove that Christianity is predicated on a man/god who never existed. It is a thought-provoking and highly visual exercise. Ultimately, though, it falls short of its goal. Flemming is a …

There probably isn’t a middle ground on Terry Jones’s views of the “war on terror.” You either agree with him or you don’t. Yet even if you do, Terry Jones’s War on the War on Terror comes off more as toss-off than lasting political commentary. Jones, whose biggest but not …

Charles Stross is science fiction’s latest sensation. After years of relative anonymity, he’s had two novels shortlisted for SF awards this year for best novel (in both the SF and fantasy categories) and two novellas have likewise been shortlisted for that format’s top awards. Iron Sunrise, which garnered the best-novel …

At least some semblance of sanity and good judgment temporarily descended on the US House Wednesday. It voted 238-187 to amend a bill appropriating money for the Department of Justice to prohibit funds in the bill from being used to implement a portion of Patriot Act that permits certain searches …

Shortlists and awards are wonderful for an author. Yet from the reader’s standpoint, isn’t the real test of a book whether you think it’s time well spent? Robert Charles Wilson, one of a growing contingent of excellent Canadian science fiction authors, meets that test with his latest novel, Spin. Wilson …

This week marks the anniversary of the US Supreme Court avoiding the core issue in the so-called “pledge case.” What may prove more notable is that it is also the anniversary of Clarence Thomas announcing a First Amendment jurisprudence that supports state theocracy, a theory he recently reaffirmed. The issue …

Floyd Abrams earned his reputation as one of this country’s leading First Amendment lawyers in the trenches as a trial lawyer. That’s what makes his Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment a welcome addition to the history of First Amendment law. Abrams takes us inside his involvement with seven …

Philip K. Dick never achieved the recognition he deserved in his lifetime and even his induction this year into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame was long overdue. Unfortunately, Lies, Inc. has value only in allowing a reader to see in one “story” both some of Dick’s standard fare and …